Visibility/Invisibility/Hypervisibility: Introduction and Contents
"I believed, and still do, that our bodies are ourselves, that my soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that my spirit is my flesh." --Ta Nehisi Coates , Between the World and Me
"Does something which exists on the edge have no true relevance to the stable center, or does it, by being on the edge, become part of the edge and thus a part of the boundary, the definition which gives the whole its shape?" --Lucy Grealy
"Antonin Artaud wrote on one of his drawings 'never real and always true,' and that is how depression feels. You know that it is not real, that you are someone else, andyet you know that it is absolutely true. It's very confusing." --Andrew Solomon The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
We all want to be seen. Being seen, visible -- in society, relationships, politics -- is a reflection of being accepted/acceptable. Conversely, being or feeling invisible is a reflection of unacceptability. Of course, there's a world of difference between being seen and being watched. Many people live in that between world -- hypervisibility -- especially when their bodies are seen as threats. Invisibility, visibility, and hypervisibility are all experienced on a physical level, as most of the time our bodies are what others see first, the tangible avenues leading to our inner selves. These terms are most often discussed in the context of perceived race/cultural differences, but in this class we will also use them to explore eating disorders, 'disfigurement', mental health, and the ways (both effective and not) in which people attempt to make peace with their own physicality and what's buried beneath.
Bodies: Visibility/Invisibility/Hypervisibility (click the link to access the syllabus in GoogleDocs) begins with a general discussion of what visibility means to each of us as individuals, then as a group in a college environment. Does it usually have positive or negative connotations? What does the physical body have to do with our sense of visibility? We will then consider the intersectionality of visibility, invisibility, and hypervisibility, and their relationship to key concepts central to understanding the body: embodiment, cultural norm, stigma, physical difference, and mind-body dualism. We will also unearth the connections between these unavoidable complexities and the experience and/or perception of race, body image, and mental health.
Required materials include a physical (not-digital) copy of Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face, and a notebook and pen/pencil. The rest of your required readings/media are available as content links to this page. Check the syllabus for specific due dates and CANVAS for assignment instructions.
SCHEDULE
Week 1: How We See
1. Why the Body?
2. Embodiment
3. Intersectionality
Week 2: Body As Baggage, Body as Pride
1. Cultural Norm
Week 3: Body As Baggage, Body as Pride cont.
1. Bodily "Difference"
2. Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
3. Stigma
Week 4: Objectification / Commodification
1. Objectification and the Fact of Blackness by Frantz Fanon
Objectification in 4 Easy Steps by Dalena Nguyen
2. Commodification and Rachel Dolezal
3. Racial Objectification in Travel Advertisement
Week 5: Objectification / Commodification cont.
1. Objectification Theory
2. Wildwood
3. Male Female Gaze
Week 6: Bodies In Danger / Bodies As Danger
1. Mind Body Dualism
2. Feminism, Western Cuture, Body (Bordo)
3. The Safety of Illusion / Illusion of Safety
4. Dissonant Bodies
Week 7: Bodies In Danger / Bodies As Danger cont.
1. Invisible Universal bodies
2. Letter to my son
3. Claudia Rankine
Week 8: Masks
1. Masks -- Chicago Institute of Tech
2. Mirrorings -- Grealy
3. Autobiography of a Face: Chapters 1-2
4. Methodologies
Week 9: Masks / Body Modification
1. Autobiography of a Face Chapters 3-8
2. ww1 masks
3. Intro Caroline Knapp
4. Hunger as...Bordo
Week 10: Mind-body (Dis) Connection
1. Chapters 9-12 Grealy
2. Article on "Who Has Eating Disorders"
3. Excerpt Roxane Gay memoir
Week 11: Mind-body (Dis) Connection
1. Body as Voice
2. Andrew Solomon article
3. Article from Kath
4. Kath Guest Lecture
Week 12: Physical Aspect of Improving Mental Health
1. Yoga article
2. Meditation Article
3. Emily Guest lecture
This page has paths:
- Visibility/Invisibility/Hypervisibility Alice Neiley
Contents of this path:
- Why the Body?
- Embodiment
- René Descartes, "Meditation on First Philosophy" (1641)
- Descartes Was Wrong
- Intersectionality
- Cultural Norm
- Bodily Difference
- Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" (1989)
- Stigma
- "The Fact of Blackness"
- Racial Objectification in 4 Easy Steps
- Zoe Samudzi, "Who Are You and What Do You Really Know? Gaslighting and Dolezalean logic" in The New Inquiry (2017)
- "The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black" in The Stranger (2017)
- Racial Objectification in Travel Advertisement
- RM Calogero, "Objectification Theory, Self-Objectification, and Body Image"
- Janice Loreck, "What Does the Male Gaze Mean, and What About a Female Gaze?"
- Wildwood
- Mind-Body Dualism
- Susan Bordo "Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body" in Unbearable Weight, Feminism, Western Culture and the body (1993)
- Safety of Illusion / Illusion of Saftey
- Nirmal Puwar, “Dissonant Bodies" in Space Invaders Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (2004)
- Nirmal Puwar, “(In)Visible Universal Bodies” in Space Invaders Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (2004)
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, "Letter to My Son"
- Methodologies
- Hana Kim, "Mask"
- Lucy Grealy, "Mirrorings"
- Masks: The Face Transplants of World War 1
- Susan Bordo, "Hunger as Ideology" (1993)
- Lululemon Admits Plus Size Clothing is Not Part of Its 'Formula'
- Hunger is a State of Being
